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Thursday, June 10, 2010

Ladies' Night

Eek, this is a short dress. I planned to wear this with black tights, but since it's day four of Already Pretty's Black out week, I paired it with grey microfishnets instead (if you look closely, you can see the tiny diamond pattern). I am wearing a slip up by bra line as well to smooth everything out. Perhaps I will end up popping another skirt under this dress, as I didn't realize quite on short it is until I uploaded the pictures.Today was a very productive day. I spend a lot of my non-teaching days (and therefore all "work days" in the summer) fretting and worrying about my productivity. But I started reading one of the books on academic writing for early career professors yesterday, and that calmed me down. I think I put a lot of pressure on myself to be very productive 12 hours a day, and that pressure doesn't help me work. The book suggested that I set aside 2 hours to work, and see how that goes. I like thesesortsofbooks because they give you behavior strategies for dealing with neuroses, and accept that most of us are just neurotic about writing. Like cognitive behavioral therapy for fretting pre-tenure profs. This "just two hours" strategy led to working about [interrupted]* 6 hours, then I went jogging, finally showered and dressed. I've tried to dress up for the home office before, but since I am person who responds to threats of punishment rather than rewards, forcing myself to remain an unpresentable bum until putting in my type at the desk worked pretty well. Also, having a social commitment in the evening (a ladies' night that a friend of a friend has organized) has also helped motivate me.On less nerdy news, Buster and Lula had a short, more pleasant interaction. Lula remains a little spooked but curious, and instead of hissing, there was meowing. Multi-cat victory!

Also, he doesn't run or hiss when we enter the room anymore. To give you an idea how tiny he is, this basket is about 12" by 10".

Do you find that having evening plans makes your day more productive? Do you have any good strategies for self guided work? Can anyone else attest to the utility of self-help writing books?

Dress: thriftedTights: some Italian sounding brand, via Daffy'sBoots: Durango, via Beacon's Closet**I tried to focus for long stretches but there's a 6 week old kitten in the house!

14 comments:

Both you and Buster are looking especially awesome here. And if you've taught me anything in the last coupla months, it's that this skirt is NOT too short. So head on out and enjoy your much-deserved ladies night out!

And thanks for the book link. Did you see Kerry Anne Rockquemore's June 7th post entitled "Support for Summer Writers: No More Post-Summer Regret" on Inside Higher Ed? I found it really helpful, so here's the link, just in case:

I read that article that A-Dubs recommends, and I'm going to come up with a plan after I defend. I want to see how many revisions my committee requires (hopefully none!) before deposit, before I try to allocate my time and energy.

I think you look smokin' in that dress! I hope you have a good night out and that the kitties keep behaving!

You look fantastic in this color, and I think everything about the cut of this dress looks great on you! I also like the pairing with boot, and I don't think it's too short. Particularly not for a ladies' night! (Buster looks good too- and I meant to comment the other day that I love the name!)

I wonder how that book would work for someone who has four almost-finished manuscripts hanging in various stages of limbo, a Ph.D. student writing her thesis, and grant deadlines every two months for the rest of the year?

Buster is so super adorable and is it just me or does it look like he's wearing lippy here? He's so lovely and I'm glad to hear that there is less hissing and more meowing.

Re: the work front. Bum-in-seat, which is sort of like the two hours turning into more but as though I were treating myself like a whiny toddler, which I sort of also am. And blogs have to be a reward. I didn't really earn this but I enjoy the kitten updates and this great blue dress. I have dinner with friends on Saturday so I'm going to use that as a kind of finish line trophy. We'll see how that goes...

When I was writing up I used to motivate myself with the 1,000 half-decent words a day rule. After you've written that you can have the rest of the day off guilt free. You can easily write that much in a couple of hours, or you can piss about all day. It made me get on with things. But then, I like writing, it's my fave part of research. Well, editing is. I love cutting and rearranging things until they're just right.

I'm delurking from your lovely blog to recommend the short book "How to Write A Lot". It's got a wealth of good suggestions about keeping one's neurotic, procrastinating self in check. Thanks for the other book suggestions and all the style inspiration.

Love the dress! The color, the cut, the cute buttons! Very flattering on you! The perfect length to show off your lovely legs. I also like the white tights and cowboy boots. What a great look! And, of course, your kitten is adorable!!!

I'm delurking from your lovely blog to recommend the short book "How to Write A Lot". It's got a wealth of good suggestions about keeping one's neurotic, procrastinating self in check. Thanks for the other book suggestions and all the style inspiration.